UND had reason to feel good about the start of the WCHA women's playoff series against Bemidji State on Friday.
The Sioux led 2-0 late in the first period on goals by Kelsey Ketcher and Candace Molle. But as the first-period horn sounded, UND's top scorer -- Jocelyne Lamoureux -- was called for checking from behind and received a game misconduct.
UND, however, didn't change its style with the loss of Lamoureux, also the country's leading scorer. The no-change philosophy helped lead the Sioux to a 3-1 win in Game 1 of the best-of-three series at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
"We talked about not wanting to change what we were doing," UND coach Brian Idalski said. "We weren't going to sit back. We wanted to still be aggressive with our first forechecker and create offense. A two-goal lead is a little tenuous. One bounce and they're back in it."
But UND's defense never let Bemidji back into the game. The Sioux outshot the Beavers 28-15.
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UND also shined on the penalty kill. Bemidji went 0-for-5 on the power play. During Bemidji's regular-season series at The Ralph earlier this month, the Beavers were 0-for-18 on power-play chances.
"It's a point of contention," Idalski said of UND's penalties. "It's something we addressed. We have to better at that. We can't be running into scrums and pressuring so hard that we're out of control."
Bemidji, meanwhile, was penalized once.
"It gets frustrating when watching some of your high-end kids get slashed, whacked and hooked and nothing gets called," Idalski said. "But it is what it is. It was a good job by our PK."
Ketcher scored UND's first goal, with the help of Monique Lamoureux-Kolls and Lamoureux.
"I was coming off the bench and I saw Jocelyne going wide," said Ketcher, who scored UND's third goal on an empty-netter in the third period. "She passed it to Mo. I had to get to the net because Peter (Elander, UND assistant coach) always says we have to drive hard to the net. I noticed I was all alone. I opened up my stick and Mo made a beautiful pass."
After the checking-from-behind penalty on Lamoureux, the Beavers couldn't break through on a five-minute man advantage to open the second period. Bemidji got only one shot during the advantage.
"They outworked us," Bemidji coach Steve Sertich said. "We didn't deserve to win. We didn't work hard enough in the first two periods and they did.
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"I was disappointed we couldn't score on our power play. We just didn't generate a whole lot of offense. We have to win more battles and races to the puck. We have to outwork them."
Bemidji scored at 18:24 of the third period when Erika Wheelhouse blasted a shot from the left point past UND goalie Steph Ney, who finished with 14 saves.
This is the second straight season that UND and Bemidji have met in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
A year ago, UND won the opener before Bemidji claimed Game 2 to force a deciding third game, won the by Sioux.
"It's never easy to end one's season," Idalski said. "And we have to learn from last year's series, too."
UND 3,
BEMIDJI ST. 1
First period -- 1. UND, Kelsey Ketcher (Monique Lamoureux-Kolls, Jocelyn Lamoureux) 10:55; 2. UND, Candace Molle (Josefine Jakobsen) 18:21
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Third period -- 3. UND, Ketcher (Allison Parizek, Monique Weber) 16:34; 4. BSU, Erika Wheelhouse (Sadie Lundquist) 18:24
Goalie saves -- UND: Steph Ney 4-6-4--14; BSU: Zuzan Tomcikova 6-10-9--25
